Tag: Interview

Today, we are happy to publish an interview of Rupert Schiessl, co-founder of Jolicharts and Verteego. Let’s get an insight of the birth of Jolicharts and the future of the application.

- Hi Rupert! How did you get the idea of Jolicharts? Actually, I am the co-founder of an independent business sustainability software vendor, VERTEEGO. After two years of searching, we were not able to find a reporting tool that was adapted to our needs. On the same time, we were everyday facing the need to create simple, natural and efficient dashboards for our shareholders reporting, business analytic production and clients. Because we exactly knew our needs, so we took the decision to design it by ourselves. We launched the Jolicharts project in February 2012. A first version was launched in September 2012, after an alpha-test period.

- Why using Jolicharts and share dashboards?This service is targeting everybody who wants to give meaning to a bunch of data: software publishers, web agencies, developers, Excel power-users, everybody who needs to share indicators and analysis with their stakeholders, also dealing with different levels of information… possibilities are really wide! Our wish is to propose an innovating service that adds value thanks to simplicity, accessibility and affordability when still being very powerful.

- How does it work? What kind of data can be uploaded, processed? What about social networks sharing?There are three ways of uploading your data: storing your data on Jolicharts, storing your data on your server and letting Jolicharts processing on it, or connect directly your data through a secure API. After uploading, data is automatically processed to be displayed on modular charts. Once designed, dashboards can be shared with all your colleagues, partners, published for everybody and of course, publicized on your preferred social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or Google +.

- Are you considering to offer data synchronization with other applications to enable automation of dashboard design?Exactly. We launched the API to enable our users to connect to any service. So many applications are developing their own charting and visualization tools. Jolicharts provides an easy solution for every application designer who wants to embed clean and simple data visualization.

- Jolicharts is a spin-off of Verteego: Why did you make this choice? What are the advantages and inconvenients?Indeed, Jolicharts is a Verteego spin-off. The reason why is because Jolicharts is fully aligned with our strategy at Verteego, which is to provide the best possible service to our customers. The very good news is that Jolicharts answered a very universal need. So we decided to make this service available to anybody: all you need is to sign-up and get started.

- What is the Jolicharts business model?Jolicharts is accessible through monthly subscriptions, depending on the ‘calculation power’ needed to process your data. Sharing remains free and unlimited. Note that it is possible to use Jolicharts for free, and then win computational power by inviting friends.

- What’s next in the Jolicharts road map?

We focus on 2 key points:

Fostering system velocity.

Enhancing Big Data capabilities.

- What was the easiest part when developing this activity? The most difficult part?The easiest part was to explain how useful this service is. Everyone sees the advantages of such an application and looks forward to using it. The most difficult bit was to actually build the technology, which is very far of being straightforward.

- What advice could you give entrepreneurs who would like to found a startup?

Well, I would give three pieces of advice:

Target a big market : It’s easier to win market share than to create a market that doesn’t exist yet.

Aim at a market where you love the ecosystem. You already know your future users, clients, partners and you remain always updated with a market you are passionate about.